First, we will provide a brief overview of automotive electrification trends and needs, with a focus on battery systems. Following this overview, we will examine methods to determine when various electrochemical reactions are occurring in a battery, which is especially important when it comes to avoiding lithium plating during overcharge of a lithium ion cell.

With the push towards greater and greater EV range for an electric vehicle, there is a reduction in the cycle life required of their battery cells. Additionally, power consumption for ancillary features such as climate control and LiDAR systems can significantly affect vehicle range and therefore battery lifetime capacity throughput. This paper will highlight these factors and their potential impact to battery life requirements.

9:15 Test and Validation Harmonization for Automotive Large Battery Packs

Automotive traction batteries are complex systems requiring sophisticated testing and validation processes during their development. Harmonization of a validated test approach can provide benefits for test simplification, the generation of a common dataset and greater overall economy. A method to harmonize validation testing will be highlighted and two case studies will be presented.

9:45 Networking Coffee Break

10:15 Chairperson’s Remarks

Brian Cunningham, Engineer, U.S. Department of Energy

10:20 Lithium-Sulfur Batteries for Transportation

Tobias Glossman, Senior Engineer, Mercedes-Benz Research and Development North America

The Li-S system has been the focus of battery research for many years. Significant progress has been made; however, commercialization on a large scale has not been observed. One well-known issue is the system’s difficulty in competing with Li-ion in regards to volumetric energy density on cell level. The promises of Li-S remain: a long term cost benefit and the possibility to present an alternative to cobalt containing batteries. This presentation will cover all the angles of Lithium-Sulfur for transportation applications.

10:50 Requirements and Challenges for Next Generation Automotive Batteries

This presentation will outline the opportunities and limitations of various material concepts from a car manufacturer’s point of view. In particular, it will address open issues that need to be solved in the future development of electric energy storage technologies for automotive applications. Some main challenges will be addressed with examples from BMW research projects.

11:20 Growing NIO’s Battery Ecosystem Silicon Valley Style

Marc Juzkow, Principal Cell Specialist, NIO

The leap from cool new EV battery technology to commercial implementation is monumental. NIO is using its Silicon Valley style partner approach to propel advanced materials, components and processes from innovative startups to market. NIO does this as both a development partner through our Silicon Valley facility and our global EV business. We will present several examples of our ecosystem partnerships; highlighting the process, results and challenges addressed. NIO’s mission is to shape a joyful lifestyle by offering smart, premium electric vehicles.

11:50 Optimizing Electric Propulsion for VTOL Aircraft

Tal Sholklapper, PhD, CEO, Voltaiq

Tushar Swamy, Senior Cell Engineer, Elevate, Uber

Electric batteries have become the obvious energy source for transportation vehicles, including VTOL aircraft. However, balancing the specific energy, charge rate, and cost per kilowatt-hour are essential to economic viability of electric aircraft. In this presentation we will discuss how Uber is implementing a data infrastructure and battery analytics environment that will enable the company to develop batteries that make VTOLs an affordable form of daily transportation.

Our laboratory has developed many methods to help rank the lifetime of cells in relatively short duration experiments (coulombic efficiency, isothermal microcalorimetry, etc.) so that cell developers and users can move rapidly to find next generation chemistries. In this presentation I will describe another powerful method and give examples of how it has been useful in developing outstanding cells that last many thousands of charge-discharge cycles and last many years.

2:00 - 2:30 Battery System Engineering Challenges and Opportunities for the Cell, Pack and System

James Lim, PhD, Battery System Engineering Manager, Google

Designing and verifying a well-balanced battery for safety, reliability, performance, availability, and cost requires strong cross-functional team interactions during system integration and product launch. The opportunities are being able to provide viable options, evaluate tradeoffs, and deliver battery solutions associated with next generation products.

BlueSolution’s next generation LMP (Lithium Metal Polymer) battery with higher performance intends to play a crucial role in the expansion of urban mobility. These all-solid batteries are dedicated to applications for electric buses which are already in use by such cities as Paris and Brussels. As a result, we have developed key partnerships with major bus manufacturers.

3:50 Progress and Challenges in the Electrification of Heavy Duty, Long Distance, Mass Transportation

Electrification of motor coaches designed for inter-community mass transport comes with a specific set of challenges that differentiate the design parameters from urban transit buses as well as other electric vehicles. MCI is successfully designing and building 100% zero-emissions battery-electric motor coaches for the commuter market, and this presentation will detail the successes and challenges that remain in this unique space with a specific emphasis on battery integration.

From 2016, the Chinese xEV market has become the largest plug-in vehicle market in the world. This presentation will compare the leading Chinese xEV companies and battery makers’ strategies, from the aspects of product, BEV/PHEV/m-HEV technical roadmap and market promotion. As a conclusion, the key issues to consider the Chinese xEV future potential will be listed.

8:30 U.S. Department of Energy Electric Vehicle Battery Research Pathways and Key Results

Brian Cunningham, Engineer, U.S. Department of Energy

The U.S. Department of Energy set key technical targets necessary to enable Electric Vehicles (EV) to be as affordable as gasoline vehicles by 2022. A focus of this effort is the development of more cost-effective, longer lasting, and more abuse-tolerant EV batteries. VTO’s battery R&D effort includes multiple activities, ranging from battery materials research to battery cell and pack development and testing. This paper will highlight the current battery R&D pathways supported by VTO and key technical results.

The presentation will cover some key developments in the public domain related to battery electric vehicles. Regulations is the US, EU, and China are an important market driver, and key features and options for meeting them will be discussed. A high-level overview of battery technology includes major electrode and electrolyte developments and the impact of these. The infrastructure developments covered include the raw material base and charging developments. Finally, an update on market acceptance and future forecasts will be summarized.

9:30 Innovating and Delivering EV Battery Performance in the Age of Hype

Benjamin Park, PhD, Founder & CTO, Enevate Corporation

Enevate’s will discuss updated data on its single-active-material and proprietary electrolyte and silicon-dominant cells designs for use in electric vehicles. Extreme fast charge with high energy density, low temperature performance and other data will be presented that shows efficacy of the developed technology in addressing the many barriers in customer adoption of EVs.

10:00 Coffee Break in the Exhibit Hall with Poster Viewing

10:45 60 Is the New 20: Challenges as a Result of Increasing EV Battery Capacities

Based on the discussion of cruising ranges, battery capacities of EVs are increasing. These developments result in challenges for the EV itself but also for the grid infrastructure. This presentation will highlight these topics and provide alternative approaches.

The presentation will review XALT achievement in development of 12 V and 48 V micro and mild hybrid batteries using LMO-LTO technology. The presentation will also report the progress in development of 12 V start stop LMO-LTO battery under 4.7M contract with USABC, project DE-EE0006250. It will be in particular emphasized in the outstanding high temperature cycle and calendar life performance of XALT LMO-LTO battery technology combined with very good cold cranking performance at -30oC.

11:45 FEATURED PRESENTATION: New Safe and Long Life Fast Charging Protocols for LIB

We developed two methods for fast charging lithium ion batteries: a “natural charging” method and a “cascade pulse” method enabling full charging between 1h and 10 min without cell’ deterioration. In “natural charging” we applied a loop between charger and cell is applied so as the cell can take charge only what kinetically is allowed. In the cascade pulse method several pulses are applied with decreasing rates followed by rest.

What do OEMs need for near term, large-scale innovation? Can the global battery R&D community deliver on what advancements OEMs need for large-scale production? Our distinguished panel will discuss what they need to innovate and what they anticipate their future requirements will be. In addition, our panelists will discuss what innovation can be achieved to meet the OEMs requirements.